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Rocky Mountain thistle

Cirsium perplexans

Also called Spring Thistle

Rocky Mountain thistle
Photo: Phil Nyland, USFS biologist per [1], Public domain
Family
Asteraceae (Daisy family)
Native range
Colorado

About

Cirsium perplexans is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Rocky Mountain thistle and Adobe Hills thistle. It is endemic to Colorado in the United States, where it occurs in the Colorado and Gunnison River Valleys in the Rocky Mountains.

This species is a biennial herb growing up to one meter tall from a taproot. The stems are coated thinly in webby fibers. The leaves are up to 30 centimeters long by 6 wide. They are sometimes unlobed but have toothed margins. The leaves have woolly fibers, especially on the undersides. The flower heads contain long lavender or purplish florets. The fruit is an achene which may exceed 2 centimeters in length including its pappus.

Other Cirsium plants

Dwarf Thistle · Tall thistle · Rose thistle · Franciscan thistle · Alishan Thistle · Arizona thistle · Creeping Thistle · Barneby's thistle · Cirsium boninense · Cirsium brachycephalum · Palouse thistle · Clustered thistle

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cirsium perplexans by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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